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Monday, February 28, 2011

"Letting sleeping dogs lie"

It's strange to me how, whenever someone begins a conversation with "no offense, but...", the other person will inevitably walk away from the conversation offended. I say, either don't ever begin a conversation this way (unless you actually do want to offend the other person, in which case, this should work well), or think before you speak and if you think the other person may be offended by the words you are about to say, just don't say them.

I was asked recently by someone if there's anything they do that really grosses me out. "I won't be offended," says this person. Yeah...right. So if there really is something they do that grosses me out, then in the future if they find themselves doing it, they'll be all self-conscious. I like to avoid saying or doing things that will result in awkward exchanges in the future. And so, of course, my answer was, "no, I can't think of anything." This may or may not have been a bold-faced lie. I'm not spilling the beans.

I like to live by the rule that, "If you're afraid of the answer, don't ask the question." Maybe this is a completely naïve way of thinking, but it allows me to sleep at night. I tend to get anxious about enough things, I don't need to add fuel to the fire. You'll never find me asking, "does this make me look fat," because if it does, no one is actually going to tell me that it does anyway. And if they do, I hope they'll then pay for the ice cream sundae they'll be sharing with me later for my bruised pride. I'll also never want to know things like how many people a significant other has dated before me. I've never asked the question and I never plan to. I'm uninformed and happy :)